Thinking about a new laptop

[Bradley G]

I have not owned a laptop as yet, so I have very limited experience with them.
I have allowed a 500 dollar goal/budget for one.
I like Sony, as my(Sony) home PC has been delivering good reliable service since X-mas 2004.
I like some features that are not common amongst the majority of choices.
The lighted key pad, full size keyboard with 10 diget Numbies.
I like the new I processors cause speed kills!
HDMI port , memory stick reader, good speakers/sound, ability for blu ray player and other enhancements to be added later.
camera with motion eye , good battery life(extended range) .
I read some are noisy and run hot so they are not comfortable for your lap.
Not like I'm going to get everything on the wish list on my budget however, any help from the wealth here would be appreciated!
What Laptop are you running? what would you like on your next one that you don't have now? TIA

[MOTOWN]

last june i bought a dell 1749 studio laptop with all of the features you listed plus several others, and i paid $1,200 it was a custom build so it took dell a little over a week to build.
for $500 your not going to come close, and you certainly will not get blu-ray, hdmi, good speakers, or good battery life! a lighted keyboard maybe! but i wouldnt count on it.
for what you want to spend count on a crapy celeron processor, and poor battery life!
if you want a high end laptop expect to pay $750, or more.

[Bradley G]

No high end needed here, I have found several very close to my goal budget.
One example I saw on Amazon ;http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L655-S5158-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B004GHNQDQ/ref=sr_1_1?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1304854100&sr=1-1




last june i bought a dell 1749 studio laptop with all of the features you listed plus several others, and i paid $1,200 it was a custom build so it took dell a little over a week to build.
for $500 your not going to come close, and you certainly will not get blu-ray, hdmi, good speakers, or good battery life! a lighted keyboard maybe! but i wouldnt count on it.
for what you want to spend count on a crapy celeron processor, and poor battery life!
if you want a high end laptop expect to pay $750, or more.

[MOTOWN]

i say "high end" because the features you spoke on are only found on high end laptops, the toshiba looks nice

[Bradley G]

The lighted keyboard and Blue ray player are but niether of those features are a deal breaker for me.


i say "high end" because the features you spoke on are only found on high end laptops, the toshiba looks nice

[MOTOWN]

check out newegg, and tigerdirect, they have some nice deals also

[Pat]

Me likey Toshiba for $479.00.

[Mercguy04]

Bradley,
May I suggest you go to CNET.com and check the review of this product. I don't know that they will give you any new information, but I have found them to look at products
with a critical eye. Just another source of information on your chosen product.
CNET is owned by CBS & Viacom, Just so you know there pedigree.
Russell

[dbc1965]

Bradley check out ibm web site have a t43p has been trouble free great performance.

[Spectragod]

I have not owned a laptop as yet, so I have very limited experience with them.
I have allowed a 500 dollar goal/budget for one.
I like Sony, as my(Sony) home PC has been delivering good reliable service since X-mas 2004.
I like some features that are not common amongst the majority of choices.
The lighted key pad, full size keyboard with 10 diget Numbies.
I like the new I processors cause speed kills!
HDMI port , memory stick reader, good speakers/sound, ability for blu ray player and other enhancements to be added later.
camera with motion eye , good battery life(extended range) .
I read some are noisy and run hot so they are not comfortable for your lap.
Not like I'm going to get everything on the wish list on my budget however, any help from the wealth here would be appreciated!
What Laptop are you running? what would you like on your next one that you don't have now? TIA

What laptop am I using?

Panasonic CF-31
Touchscreen
DVD R-RW
backlit keyboard
I3 processor
8 gig ram
160 gig hd
HDMI
4 USB's
heated/encapsulated HD
way more options than needed, all for the low low price of $4300, just a smidge out of the range that your looking at. But hey, I can rinse it off with the hose and drop it on concrete from 6 feet, and it will still work.

But seriously, that is what I use, I am too damn rough on other more fragile laptops.:D

[ctrlraven]

My Toshiba laptop was $564 but got it on black Friday for $333. I did so much research it wasn't funny because I wanted a personal laptop.

Most of the ones that will have all of your features will be over your price range so make a list of the features from what is a must to what you can give up and start down the list.

If you already have Sony and named that brand I would look into that first.

[guspech750]

I have a HP Pavillion 17" screen laptop that I have had for 5 years. It's been very reliable. I still love it but as you can tell. I use my iPhone more now. I bought Heather a 15" HP two years ago and it's been pretty darn good too.

My buddy just bought a Toshiba for $350 or $400 at Best Buy a month ago.

I like HP's. Especially the bigger 17" screens like mine.

Sent from my iPhone
Go White Sox!!!

[illwood]

That Toshiba looks like a decent laptop and the only thing I don't care for about Toshiba is that sometimes parts for them are hard to find. That is one thing that I like about Dell. They aren't the best laptops on the market, but they are a good quality and if you do need parts down the road, they are usually available because Dell made it's name on their support and repair service.

[Bradley G]

HP looks like it going to be .

[prchrman]

HP looks like it going to be .

I have a HP and like it, best laptop I ever had was a gateway, no frills but solid. My son who is lots better and does more on a computer than me hates HP ??? They seem to lock up on him all the time. Any way had my HP for several years no issue, just I have Vista and it sucks.

[Gryphonzus]

I have had two HP's and one Gateway. I like the HP because they have a touchpad disable button. When I do quite a bit of typing I use the disable because it tends to mess me up when I accidently touch the pad. I think the Toshiba has some with that feature now too. My HP's have been pretty good but their customer support sucks and also their tech non support sucks too. I bought a 17 inch hp and like it and it was around $700 at best buy. I do not even own a desktop anymore since my laptop does all I need and takes up a lot less room. Good luck on your choice.

[boatmangc]

Go to the Mfg. sites and look for refurbished units, full warranties, much lower prices.
I bought a Dell ATG D630 several years ago for less than 1/2 of new, full warranty and then I bought their 3 year extended. Worth every penny of it.
I hate PCs but for work diagnostics most only work on a Windows based PC.

Long term, Mac FTW!!!

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

Samsung 14'' here I purchased last summer, was $400 cheaper than the equivelant Sony. It has been good to me so far.

[burt ragio]

[QUOTE=Spectragod;1042974]What laptop am I using?

Panasonic CF-31
Touchscreen
DVD R-RW
backlit keyboard
I3 processor
8 gig ram
160 gig hd
HDMI
4 USB's
heated/encapsulated HD
way more options than needed, all for the low low price of $4300, just a smidge out of the range that your looking at. But hey, I can rinse it off with the hose and drop it on concrete from 6 feet, and it will still work.

But seriously, that is what I use, I am too damn rough on other more fragile laptops.:D

Darrin that is faster than your car.

[Bigdogjim]

Stop!! Buy a tablet insead! Laptops are old school:)

If you still want a laptop to to Dell's web site and look for the outlet page. These are computers (laptops) the people order and cancled for what ever reason after Dell started building them. Real good deals:)

[Timw286]

I bought a refurbished Acer for $450 over 2 years ago and haven't had any problems with it. Although I am not a gamer, I just use it for the basics like itunes, internet browsing and whatnot. I wouldn't have any doubts going with a refurbished unit from a reputable sales dept.

[FordNut]

Toshiba is a good choice, they used them where I used to work for all the field service engineers. I have had problems with Dells in the past, seems like the OS forgets how to control some of the hardware features like the volume buttons. Reloading the OS fixes it but then you have to reload the application programs too. PITA

[Mercguy04]

Be aware that Windows is releasing version 8 real soon. If you want to stay with a PC
On the other hand Apple just came out with Lion 10.7 works like a charm.
It is expensive however. The good news is all there tech support is in the United States. They speak American or Canadian
Not India or where ever.
Good luck with your purchase.
Russell

[MrBluGruv]

I bought my last laptop in the fall of 2007. I'm using it to type this now. Dell Inspiron 1501. First thing I did when I bought it though was dump Vista and setup XP. Had it dual-boot though, just in case. ;)

I've been learning a fair bit about Macs recently as I've been restoring and upgrading an old Mac Cube. Honestly, I've yet to find anything that specifically a Mac CAN do that a Windows-based PC CAN'T, and that statistic is becoming even slimmer now that Macs are based on Intel x86 processors. They are neat and shiny and slick, just not THAT different from a PC. A well-maintained Windows PC can last ages and still be fast as well with near-zero problems. I wouldn't get a macbook, but it would be fun to build a hackintosh...

[guspech750]

I have a 17" HP davillion 8000 that I bought 5 or 6 years ago. Windows XP, Works like a champ!! Bought my wife a HP two years ago. Works like a champ!! Like a car. A little maintenance goes a long way.


---
- Sent from my iPhone
Eaton Swap = Wreeeeeeeeeedom!!

[foxbodymike87]

look at ASUS they are the most reliable next to apple..i have one and its great i paid like 500 for it, and when my old computer crapped out the place i brought it to only used ASUS

[MM2004]

While I am not a fan of HP products, I have found in my experience supporting HP and Dell products at work, and side-jobs, that they are either good or bad. No in between.

Most machines I have worked on both professionally and on the side have been Dell, and strongly support their products.

HP has a tremendous amount of 'bloat-ware' above most other manufacturers in my experience.

In the event of an OS recovery, HP's software and recovery disks are less than desireable. IMO.

Many, many issues experienced in using their disks.

Not stepping on toes here, just voicing my experience as a Desktop Support Specialist.

I did purchase an eMachine laptop for my daughter a year and a half ago running W7 x64 and an Intel Core2 processor, that has been an outstanding machine! Not a gaming machine, but enough horse power to run what I can throw at it.

;)

Mike.

[sailsmen]

I have three Toshiba Satellites, all different models for 1 to 3 years. I have also owned Dell and Gateway.

If you carry it around and use it daily you can expect 3 years. If it physically last 5 years it will start to be unable to keep up with the new software requirements.

I find it is better to spend the money for a quality processor and keep for 5 years rather than buy a cheap processor and keep it for 2 years.

You can also look into leasing, you just swap it out every 2 years.

If youregularly carry it around look into the cost of the damage coverage although with the price of computers dropping it may not make cents.

I can highly rec Carbonite as a back up service.

[Chayton]

look at this baby. Although I particulary do not like acer very much, this is one heck of a deal. QUAD CORE processor, 4gb of ddr3 ram( i think you could bump er up to 8) 500gig hard drive, And on top of that the graphics card is good enough to do some gaming. only $400 bucks.


http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=631873&srkey=a180-156302&SRCCODE=CCEM737TT&cm_mmc=EML-_-Main-_-CCEM737-_-circuit737

[Bigdogjim]

Another thing to think about is HP just announced they are looking at selling off the computer division.

[Fosters]

I have an HP and would never buy one again. It is a very bad design - the processor, hard drive and memory are located next to eachother. This is a 17.3" laptop, so there's plenty of real estate. This thing gets hot like no other. A friend of mine has a similarly specced acer laptop, all 3 components are in different corners vs all 3 in the middle (on mine). He doesn't even feel the thing get warm... mine - I don't think the fan turned off since I bought it.

It's an HP G72-250us. I did upgrade it a bit, 8gb of ram and a 2nd hard drive caddy (which replaced the optical drive), in which I put the original hard drive and put a 64gb SSD as primary. It's quick, and has the space. I have an external dvd drive, so don't miss it. The actual hard drive upgrade was a pain mainly because of HP's recovery system. First, the recovery thing apparently went corrupt for some reason. If that doesn't work, you can create recovery dvds (for some reason it needs 3 of them). That apparently was corrupt also. I found a recovery media thing from HP that creates a bootable usb flash drive. I put that in, made the media, that seemed to be corrupt - halfway in the install it figured that out. Tried to recreate the bootable flash drive, and it told me you're only allowed to create one set of recovery media... I gave up on that, downloaded an ISO, burned a win 7 dvd, used the key on the back of the laptop, worked way better than HP's crappy recovery...

[NXSBOB]

Best deal at Costco. They extend manufacturer warranty for 1 year for free. I looked for biggest screen and bought Dell.

[rayjay]

I bought my wife a HP whatever for use in college two years ago. It died a couple months ago. Replaced it with a Toshiba Satellite, 17" screen, ect for $499 at BJ's Wholesale. Its hers as I don't care for laptops that much, so I can not really comment on it. She has not complained about it yet and college starts tomorrow. FWIW I'm on a 5 year old Dell PC that is still ok.